Jeffrey L. WilsonGOG.com (for PC)GOG.com may not have the latest Metal Gear Solid game in its catalog, but the video game distribution service does a great job of keeping classic computer games alive on modern PCs.

Lots of classic PC games configured to run on modern PCs. No DRM. Some games are bundled with terrific extras. Refunds. Cool Fair Price Practice.

Cons

Not many new games. Few online multiplayer titles. Must download the separate GOG Galaxy desktop client for chat features.

Bottom Line

GOG.com may not have the latest Metal Gear Solid game in its catalog, but the video game distribution service does a great job of keeping classic computer games alive on modern PCs.

GOG.com (the company formerly known as Good Old Games) is the store to visit if you have a hankering for Alone in the Dark, Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura, Baldur's Gate, and other classic computer games from the 1990s and early 2000s. Although GOG.com specializes in retro titles, the company has a very progressive outlook in regard to how it delivers content: None of its games feature restrictive digital rights management (DRM). That two-pronged attack has enabled GOG.com to thrive in the Steam-dominated video game distribution space. I'm happy to report that GOG.com's service is pretty damn good, too, despite a few minor complaints.

The Dawn of TimeOld games are almost the entirety of GOG.com's selection, with hundreds of classic video games titles the last two decades. Many computer games from that period became difficult to run in Windows XP and later versions of Windows, so GOG.com delivers them in DOSBox format, allowing the games to run on contemporary gaming PCs (as well as Linux and Mac machines). GOG.com is doing its part in the video game preservation movement.

You can download games directly from the GOG.com website, or you can use the optional GOG Galaxy desktop client. The application lets you back up your purchases, activate/deactivate auto-updates, and much more. You can even roll back GOG Galaxy to a previous version, if you so choose. That comes in handy if a buggy version gets released to the public.

Besides Hotline Miami, Rogue Legacy, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and a handful of other titles, you'll be hard-pressed to find software that isn't at least five years old. If you want new games, Steam is your jam.

The GOG.COM ExperienceIt's hard to complain about GOG.com's prices when almost everything costs $9.99 or less. In fact, Planescape: Torment, Neverwinter Nights II: Complete, and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt are just three of the very few games on the service that cost more than $10. And, like Steam, GOG.com has incredible seasonal sales that let you score lots of games for even less.

GOG.com also has a Fair Price Practice applied to games that cost more overseas than they do in the United States. As a result, international gamers pay the same amount for their titles as their American counterparts. GOG.com eats the additional cost by offering international buyers the monetary difference as store credit.

Considering that most of the games were developed before Steam, PSN, and Xbox Live, and that many hail from the days of manually inputting TCP/IP information to deathmatch over dialup, this is not the service to choose if you want a thrilling multiplayer experience. In fact, many GOG.com games lack online multiplayer modes altogether. On the upside, many games come with bonuses, like wallpapers, soundtracks, and scanned manuals. Note: If you want to chat it up with friends, GOG.com offers an instant messaging client in its GOG Galaxy desktop application.

Store pages contain all the essentials you need when it comes time to purchase a game: screenshots, minimum and recommended PC hardware specs, user reviews, and recommendations. GOG.com's game-discovery system isn't nearly as robust as Steam's recommendation engines, but it has interesting user-created lists (called GOGmixes) like Games With Nudity and Thinking Man's FPS Games.

Like Steam, GOG.com sells movies, but here it's with a focus on films that directly speak to its audience. You'll find Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie, Starring Adam West, and many other films, but none that have much mainstream appeal. Steam, on the other hand, boasts the Mad Max film series, including this year's well-received Mad Max: Fury Road.

Legends Never Die GOG.com isn't designed for Madden bros, and that's fine. Retro PC gaming is a niche market, but GOG.com has classic titles to please nearly everyone who loves older games. If you want to jump into the history of PC games, this is the site to use. If you want to play more modern games, Steam, our Editors' Choice for PC gaming stores, is the way to go.

About the Author

For more than a decade, Jeffrey L. Wilson has penned gadget- and video game-related nerd-copy for a variety of publications, including 1UP, 2D-X, The Cask, Laptop, LifeStyler, Parenting, Sync, Wise Bread, and WWE. He now brings his knowledge and skillset to PCMag as Senior Analyst.
When he isn't staring at a monitor (or two) and churning out Web... See Full Bio

GOG.com (for PC)

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